Rain, Shine and telling the Time

A great way to kick off on the right foot with your referee is to tell him kick off is at 2pm and tell everyone else it is at 3pm.

Last Saturday was the second game of the season and the second last minute appointment. The home side where a mixed social team and so were the visitors but the average age between the two was about 10 years. The youngsters choose to kick-off and used the slope to finish the game off in the first half. They clearly were able and willing to play the game at pace which caused a couple of questions when they took quick penalties. I am willing to take a sympathetic approach to back-10m with older sides, so long as players keep out of the way. However, standing still or moving in to make a tackle are getting the opposition a second go. The next point is that there is no Law covering a second quick penalty, this falls under Myths of the Game. It is a game management tactic, no penalty can be taken until the referee has given the mark, I won't give the second mark quickly because a succession of tap penalties become very messy and confusing for all involved. Order and not chaos is what make a great game and ensure that all get my full attention. 
One of the lesser used Laws is 11.4 OFFSIDE UNDER THE 10-METRE LAW; Red 10 fields a kick and hoists an up and under, instead of going 30-40m upfield, it goes up and down. Black 12 fields it 5m forward but every player around him is off-side and can't tackle him. 
The scrummage was tricky all afternoon, there was an early penalty for not driving straight, but Black were complaining about Red not taking the hit when I penalised them for driving early. This was a tough one to spot, something the Black prop gave me tips on in the bar later; its all in the foot work. A new prop in the second half caused me huge problems, he simply refused to bind. He started on the tight head and after a reset conceded a penalty then moved to the loose head where the same thing occurred. At this level, I am going to coach and re-set first, make it clear what I want and then penalise. I'm comfortable that was the correct course as the prop in question was returning after many years out. He got the message in the end but for safety's sake penalising someone without correcting their technique isn't going to benefit them. On Saturday in a level 10 league game it will be straight to penalties and potentially a card if he fails to comply.
After avoiding any rain all last season, the weather managed pay-back but despite that, it managed to be a great afternoon of rugby, open, clean and with a great spirit, which fits in with my philosophy.

3 Yellows and a flying Prop

With the words of last week’s assessor still fresh in my ears it was off to the Surrey countryside for a local derby in the merit league, a scrappy game full of incident was to follow. The home side (Blue) looked to be mix of youth and experience whilst the visitors (Black) seemed well loaded with experience. The pitch at this club has a significant end to end slope and this is a key factor in choosing sides at kick off. Use the early advantage or take the easier option for tired legs in the second half. Black choose the early advantage. This didn’t work out so well with an early, fast paced try for Blue. This seemed to wake-up Black who used their considerable forward advantage to dominate field position and possession.
Black’s mix of oldies looked to bully Blue early on and I warned them to calm thinks down. Minutes later as a promising move came to end just short of the Blue goal line, Black 16 had words with a Blue player before open-handedly slapping him. The ensuing yellow card was met with protests that it was only a slap, yes it was, if it had been a punch then it would be have been red. From scrumaging under the posts, Black were marched down the field. At 15 minutes in, it was certainly my earliest yellow card and the assessor’s advice did result in taming Black’s temper.
Another Black move came to end 3m out as a Blue player goes down over the ball, killing it. Again a yellow card but no penalty try as Black didn’t look to be certain to score. However, they did from the penalty and turned around 12-10 up, not a great advantage since they would be playing up hill in the second period.
The lack of position and procession had seen a big penalty count against Blue and the captain was warned to keep discipline in the second half but their new strategy was to use the slope and speed of their young backs to keep the old fellas in Black away from the ball. This worked with two early tries which put the game beyond Black. A bizarre aspect of Black’s play was the number of accidental off-sides from ruck and maul. I say accidental but there is a case for obstruction and a penalty, but I judged that the forward players were just too lazy to retire properly. They found this very frustrating but I offered the penalty interpretation and that quietened the complaints. There was to be a third yellow card as a Black winger, chipped through, the Blue defender, jumped to charge it down but deliberately landed in a way to trip the attacking player. The captain had been warned that the penalty count was high and that was reckless play.
The scrumage in this game was a tough one to control. The wizened operators of Black verses the bulk and youth of Blue. The first half, pushing down hill, Black adequately contained the Blue pack. I over heard the Black tight head complimenting his 19 year old adversary on his efforts. However, in the second half, it all started to go wrong; Blue were now pushing down the slope and Black struggles to hold the engagement hit. This resulted in a couple of free kicks for the early push and for delaying the put in. However, in the final quarter, Black’s loose head popped up repeatedly. The first penalty was against him for not taking the pressure and standing up, then against Blue for driving up and then, once again against Black at the loose head flew up in the face of an almighty shove. There is often an element of lottery in getting the call right on front row offences but I am getting more confident calling it right and going for a sanction rather than a re-set.
What did it take out of this match? It was a spirited but disappointing spectacle, there were too many penalties but try as I might they were generally clear, obvious and fair. The early and confident use of a yellow card calmed things down and got both sides focusing on the game. I cut down on the commentary to players and acted with more confidence in key game management phases and the new positioning at kick-offs, line-outs and goal kicks seemed to work well. Final score 31-12 to Blue.

Thursday's a Training Day...

One of the great benefits of the London Society of Referees is that it is able to attract great speakers to training nights. Wayne Barnes, a graduate of the society is a regular at meetings and last night one of the newest premiership referees PJ Doyle was giving the benefit of his wisdom. The main event was Neil Hatley, the Guinness premierships, most experienced prop and academy coach at London Irish.
Neil gave a fantastic talk on scrumaging, what players and coaches want from referees and how to achieve a fair contest. The England scrum coach Phil Keith-Roach gave an excellent talk some time ago, but Neil added a practical and well illustrated angle.
Key recommendation were to get front rows square and stationary before calling the engagement and what was extremely useful was to show front row misdeeds. Its all well and good talking about what should happen and what to look out for, but having it played to you in slow motion with an expert pointing it out was marvellous. The fact that many of these infractions were un-penalised by international referees provided much debate. It made me realise how much I had been missing or at least allowed to go, not realising the disadvantage I had perpetuated. Clearly a new vigour will apply at Saturday’s game.
ELV and IRB directives also came under discussion, as you might expect this included the 5m scrum offside enforcement, or lack there of. There is so much to watch at scrums, primarily because of safety, the distant drift of defenders to the ‘old’ offside will rarely be caught, particularly without touch judges. Out of the corner of the eye, 3m looks much the same as 5m. Unless the scrum is going well, not even the premiership referees appear to have penalised this yet.
Finally, we are under strict instruction from the IRB to enforce players onto their feet at rucks. We are all conscious of defending players diving off their feet to ‘win’ (read kill) the ball. Less emphasis has been placed on attacking players driving over the ball and going to ground or bridging the tackle. This prevents and obstructs the opposition trying to ruck the ball fairly, and needs to be punished. You have been warned, plenty to take into tomorrow’s game.